The recording of a performance at Studio 104, Maison de la Radio, recycling One for Juan from Jimmy Heath’s Love And Understanding LP for Muse, and Watergate Blues and Smilin’ Billy, both from the Bros’ recent Marchin’ On LP.

‘That was the first Heath Brothers album. Stanley Cowell had started the Strata-East label with Charles Tolliver, and they engaged us to do a record. It was a family affair, and we adopted Stanley because we thought he was amazing. That was a different type of record for us. We recorded it while we were on tour in Oslo, Norway. We used to get on the train and travel around Europe, and we’d be playing in these cabins on the train. Percy played a bass with a cello body that Ray Brown created, Tootie and I played flutes, and Stanley played a chromatic African thumb piano. People would stop and listen to us on these trains going from one country to the next, and it was something that they liked. It was like a chamber-music group. So we decided to include that sound on the record.’

The version of Smilin’ Billy is a show-stopper.

A thrilling, uncompromising blend of free jazz, funk, and blues.
JH is at his most intensely wake-the-dead and crying, on alto saxophone, with Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Phillip Wilson on danceable tuned drums, and Abdul Wadud playing a blinder on cello.

“So the great names, Johnny Coltrane and stuff like that? Most all of them were extraordinary blues players. This music is blues-driven. In terms of what has gone on before. Now where it goes from here — where it is going from here — may not be the same thing, ’cause it has to change, or it’ll die in my opinion. You know what I mean? The traditions keep on turning over! People keep looking rearward for the tradition. The tradition in this music is forward! Forward! Not what you did last week, but this week! You see what I’m saying? Now… that’s a hard road.”

Our Thing, In ‘N Out, Inner Urge, The State Of The Tenor Volumes 1 & 2.

‘Classic Vinyl Series.’

Classic Vinyl Series.

His third Blue Note as leader, in 1964, with Kenny Dorham, McCoy Tyner, Richard Davis and Elvin Jones. Rhythmically rooted in Trane, unsurprisingly, but Dorham and especially Henderson go their own searching, purposeful ways. The first three are his own compositions. Ace.

Knockout.
The opener is gorgeous. Ron Carter locks down the groove; Joe Henderson takes flight. Right away you know it’s a classic in store.
JH’s second for Milestone, from 1967-68, with two different rhythm sections; Kenny Barron; plenty of Trane in the air.
Very warmly recommended.

Booker Ervin! Mira!

Stretching out in 1965, with John Gilmore, Joe Chambers and co, two extra percussionists, and two bassists on one track. Abstract, fierce, textured, compelling.

A cor-blimey line-up, and a masterpiece, recorded on the first day of spring in 1964. Dorham, Dolphy, Joe Henderson, Richard Davis, Tony Williams.
‘Classic Vinyl Series.’

‘Classic Vinyl Series.’

Dazzling music from 1969, way ahead of its time, by a nonet with Woody Shaw and Dizzy Reece on trumpets, Joe Farrell on reeds, woodwinds, and English horn, Bob Northern on French horn, Howard Johnson on tuba and bass clarinet, Ron Carter on bass. Fresh from Bitches Brew, Lenny White plays drums at just his second recording session; trombonist Julian Priester is a few months away from Mwandishi.
Sideways establishes Hill’s signature twist on Monk and Bud Powell, with its angular, sinewy restlessness, and Caribbean tang. The horns are crossly careering. The evocative title cut has classical, cinematic manners, but in the service of East of the River Nile mysticism. Plantation Bag is magnificent, delirious, epic funk, with Lenny White channelling Clyde Stubblefied, and Ron Carter dug in deep. Noon Tide tears way further eastwards, in the same urgent cohort as classics like Yusef Lateef’s Chang, Chang, Chang and Pete La Roca’s Dancing Girls. Cascade is precisely skittering and eruptive, with wonderful trumpet-playing. Yesterday’s Tomorrow is playful, both jaunty and rueful, undecided, to close.
The arrangements throughout are imperious; the playing is uniformly superb. “We had rehearsal time and a lot of studio time. Some of those songs, we did take 45 or take 50. We played them over and over and over, till we got a complete take just right.’‘
Knockout.